


Castiel's Epilogue

by LiveAndLet_Die



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Cas likes Dean's music, Cas-centric, Castiel Drives the Impala, Castiel Oneshot, Dead Winchesters, Emotional Castiel, Family, Flashbacks, Grief/Mourning, Happy Memories, Hope vs. Despair, Hopeful Ending, Hunter Castiel, Hurt Castiel, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Castiel/Dean Winchester, Keep Fighting, Librarian Castiel, Men of Letters Bunker, Other, POV Castiel, Post- Sam's Death, Post-Dean's Death, Sad and Happy, Sad with a Happy Ending, Short & Sweet, supernatural oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 02:04:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9945482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveAndLet_Die/pseuds/LiveAndLet_Die
Summary: Cas gripped the steering wheel. The year was 2033, and he was going to Kansas.





	

Cas gripped the steering wheel. The year was 2033, and he was going to Kansas.

He found it odd that he had begun to refer to himself using that nickname - millions of years of being Castiel, Angel of the Lord, and now, he was simply Cas. 

He supposed that was thanks to Dean.

Dean. Cas felt a familiar pang in his chest. The nature of emotion never ceased to fascinate him, and he had found that grief was quite a peculiar experience. It had been more than a decade since he had lost the Winchesters, but the wound he felt was just as deep and painful as it was in the weeks after their deaths - although, admittedly, not as jarring, nor nearly as debilitating. 

He reached over to take one of the cassette tapes from the box next to him. It was Let It Bleed, by the Stones, an album he had taken a liking to in the past months. Cas relaxed into the seat as Keith Richards started up on guitar.

Those weeks were tough. They were drenched in hard liquor and heartbreak, minutes moving like hours, hours feeling like days, and all seemed to be lost as Cas watched his friends’ ashes waft up into the night sky. All he could do was heed their word, to let them go. Cas had watched how the Winchesters tore themselves apart, time after time, sacrificing themselves to save one another, and how each time it rendered them more broken, more weary, and he understood that it would need to be him that broke the cycle, and let them rest. But it was so, so very hard. 

If it weren’t for Jodi, he could easily still be walking along that highway with a bottle of Jack in his hand. However, Jodi had found him, taken him under her wing, and given him a place to stay during those first few months, and it was in the comforts of her home that Cas began to come to terms with the world he was living in - a world without the Winchesters, and everything that would be different because of it.

Nothing could change what had happened, Cas knew that. But, he also knew Earth would be much less safe than it had ever been under the care of Sam and Dean. 

He had no idea where a wayward angel fell into this new equation, but Dean had told him to keep fighting, and that had given Cas purpose. With the keys to the Impala and a clean set of clothes, Cas had set out in search for a niche in which he could best serve humanity.

In a way, it felt as if he had gone full circle - he began his journey a guardian of humans, and, he supposed he would end it the same way. Although, he lacked the direction that supplied that young and foolish Castiel. He found he was no better at hunting than the last time he had tried, and no amount of practice and training seemed to alter that fact; teaming up with other hunters seemed to worsen his performance, and those hunters never seemed to welcome his presence anyways. He was left, once again, feeling entirely useless. A couple of years of fruitless attempts at hunting passed before Cas came up with the idea. And when it came to him, he felt entirely stupid for not thinking of it before - here he was, living in an underground facility filled to the brim with information on every supernatural thing that existed anywhere in the world, and he was doing nothing with it. 

So, after reading every journal, manuscript, book and letter in the bunker, Cas found himself an old storefront in Chicago and got to work. Behind what looked like a quaint little bookstore, Cas fashioned a stronghold - and filled it with the catalogs of the Men of Letters, creating the first supernatural library American hunters had ever seen - giving those hunters access to immeasurably valuable lore and knowledge which had been out of reach for centuries. Cas was pretty proud of himself for that, despite knowing Dean wouldn’t be crazy about the angel becoming a librarian.

He smiled, watching the familiar roads unfold in front of him. It was funny, how a loved one seemed to cement themselves into your subconscious. Before, he found most everything reminded him of them, and in particular, Dean. An article in the newspaper, faces in the crowd, a brand of beer in the Quik-E-Mart, all used to trigger flashbacks, waves of emotion, guilt. But now, it was different. Little things reminded him of Dean - the smell of clean leather, the green on the trees in the summer, how Claire took every opportunity to make a pop culture reference. Dean had even found a place in Cas’s head, a soft voice that never missed a chance to gently point out when he was being an idiot, and remind him what mattered, and why he was still fighting.

Cas couldn’t say he had moved on, nor did he believe he ever would. But, as for right now, he was pretty sure he knew the way. 

Boxes rattled around in the back seat as Cas drove to Lebanon, Kansas, to retrieve some files on Rugaroos desperately needed by a hunter in Michigan. The radio blasted classic rock as the Impala cruised down an old country highway.

Cas gripped the steering wheel. The year was 2033, and he was going home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
